GLOBE Act of 2025

This bill directs the U.S. to protect the human rights of LGBTQI people around the world and expand their opportunities. It requires the State Department’s annual human rights reports to track anti-LGBTQI laws and violence and asks embassies to plan concrete steps to address it . A Special Envoy at the State Department would lead this work across agencies and represent the U.S. in global talks. The U.S. could sanction foreign abusers with visa bans and revocations, and the President must publish and update a list of offenders within 180 days and twice a year after that .

It supports local communities by creating a Global Equality Fund and a development partnership to provide grants, emergency help, and training to groups advancing equal rights. U.S.-funded aid programs must be open to everyone and not exclude people from services. The bill also reviews foreign laws that criminalize LGBTQI people and uses training and exchanges to push for decriminalization, while urging U.S. leadership at the UN, development banks, and through the Equal Rights Coalition .

For people seeking safety in the U.S., it recognizes LGBTQI people as a “particular social group” for asylum, removes the one-year filing deadline, creates a Priority 2 refugee pathway for those from countries that fail to protect them, and trains staff to conduct safe, respectful interviews . It presumes release for vulnerable immigrants, sets protections for LGBTQI detainees, and guarantees a government-paid lawyer if an indigent person asks for counsel in removal court. It also recognizes “permanent partners” in immigration when marriage isn’t possible in a person’s home country .

For U.S. families, it lets people choose M, F, or X on passports and similar documents. It ensures children born abroad through assisted reproductive technology can get U.S. citizenship at birth when a U.S. parent is legally recognized, even without a biological connection; rules are due within 90 days. It also pushes foreign governments to issue visas for families of U.S. LGBTQI diplomats and improves information on posts and schools; a classified list of noncompliant countries is due in 180 days.

• Who is affected: LGBTQI people abroad; civil society groups; asylum seekers and refugees; detained immigrants; U.S. passport holders; U.S. diplomats and their families.
• What changes: stronger reporting and embassy action on anti-LGBTQI violence; targeted sanctions; funding and partnerships to support local groups; fairer asylum and refugee processes; detention protections and access to counsel; X gender marker on passports; citizenship clarity for children born abroad via assisted reproduction; more U.S. leadership in international bodies.
• When: rules for citizenship-by-assistive reproduction within 90 days; initial sanctions list, visa-revocation regulations, and the diplomat-family accreditation list within 180 days; ongoing annual reports and twice-yearly sanctions updates .